This invention relates generally to a livestock feeder for use in dispensing hay to a group of animals, and more particularly to a hay feeder for cattle.
Livestock are typically fed during non-grazing months with stored hay. The hay is often stored in hay stacks, rectangular bales or in large cylindrical bales normally having a diameter on the order of about five to seven feet. When feeding, cattle tend to tear and pick at the hay in search of the choicest morsels. This often results in the less desirable portions of hay falling to the ground and becoming trampled by the cattle. Since cattle will not eat any hay which has become trampled, there is the potential for a large amount of waste from feeding cattle with stored hay.
In order to eliminate some of this potential waste, round bale feeders have long been known in the art. Although round feeders can be used with or can be sized for use with hay stacks and rectangular bales of hay, these feeders are more often designed to receive a single cylindrical bale of hay, which is confined within the bale feeder for access by a number of animals surrounding the feeder. The simplest feeders of this type typically include a plurality of circular rails which are connected to form a cylindrical body of a size to fit around the periphery of the bale. The connecting members typically comprise vertical or slanted bars so the animal can pass its head through the bars to reach the feed, but the bars are too close to allow the animal to actually climb into the feeder. In order to further limit waste, a sheet metal skirt is often provided from the lower most ring, which rests upon the ground, to a height on the order of 18 inches to assist in confining loose hay inside the feeder. While these prior art hay bale feeders are an improvement over simply allowing the cattle to feed from an unprotected hay stack or bale, they suffer from a number of significant draw backs.
Hay bale feeders are typically subjected to significant stresses, when being moved from one location to another, when being loaded with fresh hay and when being pushed around a feed lot by cattle seeking to obtain the last portions of the hay. In order to withstand such abuse, it has been the conventional wisdom in the art of hay bale feeders to confront these stresses by making the feeder as rigidly strong as possible. Nevertheless, prior art hay bale feeders eventually succumb to both the elements by rusting, and the repeated abuse by typically bending or breaking, with the consequence being that the feeder must be replaced.
In order to further eliminate hay waste, Delichte (U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,609) teaches a rigid hay bale feeder having an inner frame within which the cylindrical bale is confined, and an outer frame separated a fixed distance from the inner frame to prevent or to limit access to the hay bale by the animals. Some waste is eliminated because much of the hay that drops from the animal's mouth as it tears at the hay bale is dropped back into the feeder for later feeding instead of falling to the ground to be trampled and wasted. Delichte, however, suffers from a number of disadvantages due to its rigid design and structural form. Firstly, because of the rigid design, the hay bale is not held tightly within the inner frame because the inner frame must be sized to receive hay bales of different diameters. Another disadvantage that has long persisted in the art is the problems caused by the ring bar construction at the base of the feeder. As the animals feed, especially in the winter months, mud can freeze around the base ring of the bale feeder and make it difficult to break the feeder free from the ground without bending or breaking the feeder. Another problem encountered with the Delichte feeder is the inability to prevent over stressing of the framework when loading a heavy cylindrical bale into the feeder. In other words, the hay bale often becomes hung up on the inner frame when loading from the top. Like all other prior art bale feeders, the Delichte feeder eventually must be replaced due to rusting and breakage from repeated stressing.
Akins (U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,368) describes another rigidly constructed hay bale feeder having the waste eliminating features of Delichte, but in a construction that is more easily broken down into simpler parts for transport. While Akins can be broken down into more simpler parts than the Delichte hay feeder, it is still not suitable to be broken down sufficiently to qualify for shipment via parcel post. Furthermore the rigid structure of Akins suffers from the same ground freezing problems of the prior art and also results in a hay feeder that has difficulty withstanding the stresses encountered in the daily use of the feeder. Akins, like all other prior art rigid metallic feeders, suffers from another potential disadvantage during the winter months. During extreme cold months, livestock are sometimes injured when their tongues freeze to the metal structure of the feeder during feeding.
What is needed is a hay bale feeder that is relatively light yet robust enough to deal with the stresses or ordinary use without bending or breaking, is made from a corrosive resistant material that resists weathering, and has a structural form that overcomes the ground freezing problem.